François De Salignac De La Mothe Fénelon “Les Aventures De Télémaque” (1699): Circolazione delle traduzioni in ambito germanofono nel 1700

This paper analyses the XVIII century German translations of Les aventures de Télémaque (1699) by François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon. In that century, Fénelon’s masterpiece was translated into German mainly by four authors (August Bohse, Benjamin Neukirch, Josef Anton Ehrenreich, Ludwig Ernst Faramond), who adapted the text according not also to the historical period, but also to their own purpose, creating completely different works. They transformed the original text in different text genres, from a utopian novel with political and pedagogical aims to a text in verse form for didactic purposes, or to an epic poem with pedagogical functions. To investigate the differences between the translations the paper will focus especially on the macrostructural and the paratextual elements in order to make preliminary hypothesis on 1) the text genre, 2) the functions of the text and 3) the expected audience. Examples and final conclusions will end the article.